Stay fiercely loyal to your Catholic roots

Oblate theologian maps out survival strategy in multicultural societies

Fr. Ron Rolheiser

By BILL GLEN
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

The world is a vastly different place than the one Father Ron Rolheiser grew up in as a boy in western Saskatchewan. He recalls a time when people were generally of the same race and faith.

But it has all changed in a single generation.

The lines between religion, ethnicity and culture are now blurred.

What has this meant to preserving the Catholic identity?

As guest speaker during Catholic Social Services' 45th annual general meeting June 6, Rolheiser told the packed room that Catholics must be fiercely loyal to their roots.

"It was a time that wasn't very multi-faith, multi-ethnic or multicultural, where most people were Caucasian, of European descent with some form of Christian background," said Rolheiser, now president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

A challenge

He said the drastic changes that have occurred, particularly in Canada, are not only a challenge to a multi-faith society, but also a challenge to faith itself.

"We live in a fairly radically secular culture that can be (secularly) fundamentalist. It simply doesn't allow for Christianity and God in terms of public witness."

Jesus said that God's heart is a place of many rooms - places where he embraces the "why" - the "other."

God is universal to all people, Rolheiser said.

"We must stretch our hearts to become instruments of salvation. We must be fiercely loyal to our own identity, as Jesus was to God, even though we might find it difficult in such a multicultural world," he said.

"What we all experience as we grow more multi-faith, is that we are having our hearts stretched in ways that are at times very scary to us.

"We wonder where we are all going because the roots we grew up on are gone," he said.

Embrace the different

Rolheiser said that to find God, go to something that is different. Be with others of different creed, race, religion, gender, ideology, health or even someone who dislikes you.

"God is other than what we are. We should always welcome strangers - somebody who is different because God always speaks in a special way through somebody who is different. And not just a different faith.

"A person who frightens you in any way, is part of God's important message to our lives."

A society with so many churches and cultures is a healthy opportunity to open more space for an infinite God to enter.

"Part of nurturing and preserving our Catholic identity is letting our hearts be stretched more and more, to accept the other."

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